Significant bodies of research indicate that cumulative, personal exposure to fine particulates (i.e. PM2.5) is strongly correlated with pulmonary disease and cardiovascular disease. In addition, statistically significant correlations have now been discovered between exposure to PM2.5 by pregnant women and the onset of autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children. The residential home represents a large portion of a person's overall exposure profile to PM2.5, and therefore direct measurement and reporting of home air pollution can provide valuable insight into mitigation of overall fine particular exposure in order to maximize long-term and short-term health. Existing low-cost devices suitable for retail sales suffer from lack of linearity and lack of value agreement, chiefly because particulate measurement sensitivity is greatly affected by individual electronics and optics components used in core particulate sensing devices.
In order to enable the sale of low-cost particle-counting air pollution or quality monitors, one must be able to calibrate the sensitivity and signal functions of each fully built air quality monitor individually. However, individual calibration is expensive in time and labor terms, thereby conflicting with the goal of keeping total production cost low so that the retail price may also be low.